Employees of the Pocono Record voted on the stories, and here's how the voting turned out for the biggest local stories of 2012:

Maybe the Poconos wasn't the hardest hit area in Sandy's enormous, devastating path on Oct. 29-30. That doesn't mean it felt any less devastating to the thousands of affected residents of Monroe, Pike and Northampton counties, some of whom lost power for more than a week. The storm canceled schools, tested the emergency response of the region and pushed electrical and transportation repair crews into 24-7 service.

School districts have been pushed to the financial brink in Monroe County over the last two years, and 2012 was a trying time for local school boards and administrators — as well as taxpayers. Pocono Mountain laid off about 280 teachers and staff members and closed three schools. Stroudsburg Area laid off about 60 teachers. East Stroudsburg Area talked about closing two elementary schools in a consolidation effort and levying fees on drivers education and athletics, but scrapped that plan near the final hour.

It's not like the weather delay during the Pennsylvania 500 on Aug. 5 was the first one we've seen at the Pocono Raceway. This one, however, brought with it an intense lightning storm, unleashing a lightning bolt that struck in the parking lot, killing 41-year-old Moosic resident Brian Zimmerman and injuring a number of other people nearby. The tragic incident has led to the raceway reviewing its safety procedures during lightning storms, though track officials have stayed mum on the specifics of the review.

It's not the biggest bridge in the county, and it's probably not the most important. But you never would have known that when the bridge, which connects Stroudsburg to South Stroudsburg, opened on Dec. 17 after being closed, demolished and rebuilt again over the last 18 months. The opening ceremony included a marching band walking over the bridge and local dignitaries, and more importantly, has eased much of the traffic tension caused by the closed bridge.

Has it really been more than two decades since someone officially said, "Yeah, something really needs to be done about all the traffic on Route 209 in Marshalls Creek." Yup, 1991, that's when the project started. And 21 years later, it might look different than originally conceptualized, but the road designed to ease traffic on Route 209 through Marshalls Creek finally opened June 11.

We already have two resorts with indoor water parks — but neither Great Wolf nor Split Rock's water park facilities is going to come close to what Kalahari is proposing. The Wisconsin-based company, though it hasn't received any municipal or state permissions to start construction, hopes to build a 1,200-room resort, a 10-acre outdoor water park, a 300,000-square-foot indoor water park and a 300,000-square-foot convention center. If all goes according to plan, company officials hope to start construction in the spring after first bringing the idea into the public eye on July 25.

The new year won't bring much relief from a controversy over a strip club on former Supervisor Bob Spano Sr.'s Werry's Pub property. Spano was charged with state Ethics Act violations after he voted in August 2011 to place the club on his own property. He pleaded guilty to ethics charges unrelated to the female nude dance club and served three months in jail before being paroled this month. Spano still faces a federal charge of misrepresenting his girlfriend as his spouse to qualify her for township health insurance. The township still has to make a decision next year on the site plan for the club, and a lawsuit by a dozen residents to overturn the original August 2011 strip club approval is still pending.

While Mattioli will always be known as the longtime owner of the Pocono Raceway, it's his philanthropy that likely will be his legacy after his death Jan. 27 at age 86. Mattioli and his Mattioli Foundation donated millions to local organizations, municipal projects, scholarships, education improvements and anonymous people who needed his help. His funeral procession included one last lap around the Long Pond track.

The former pastor at the Reeders United Methodist Church in Jackson Township already was charged with the 2008 killing of his second wife, Betty Jean. But on Dec. 11, prosecutors in Lebanon County took it a step further and charged him with homicide in the 1999 death of his first wife Jewel. He faces a January trial locally for the charges stemming from Betty Jean's death.

Redistricting, take 2. Or maybe it's take 47 at this point? Either way, the latest plan to divide Pennsylvania's House of Representatives and Senate districts passed on June 9 is being challenged (again) and likely is headed back to the state's Supreme Court (again). The current plan leaves Monroe County with a new Senate district, a small northern portion of the county staying with the Lackawanna County-based 22nd Senate District, and three House of Representatives districts.